


forgotten flowers in the c[O]ncrete

by asterCrash



Category: NieR: Automata (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, Spoilers, Tragedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-15
Updated: 2018-04-15
Packaged: 2019-04-23 06:02:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,439
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14326158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/asterCrash/pseuds/asterCrash
Summary: 9S is missing, 2B accepts what that means.





	forgotten flowers in the c[O]ncrete

2B crouched to examine the flower before her. It was odd, she thought, to see something so determined in the face of endless struggle, growing out of the cracks in the concrete. It had sprouted in the only patch of sunlight on the ground floor of this overall unimpressive office building that was serving as headquarters for the local resistance. It had been a miserable assignment so far, most of her time on the ground, fighting machines in tight alleys where there was barely enough room for her to carry her sword, let alone use it. Meanwhile 9S would be off far above her, leaping from building to building in order to keep ahead of machine forces and scout out the infinitely tessellating streets they were hoping to win back. Some days all she saw of him were the flashes of black overhead as he passed over her by chance. She wondered if he looked down to see her when that happened.

The flower looked wilting, despite having grown to maturity, and on impulse 2B took off her glove and bit deeply into her thumb until circulatory fluid leaked out, dark red and dripping. She carefully allowed a few drops to water the very base of the flower, where the stem disappeared into the crack in the concrete. She wasn’t sure if the nano-fluid would do anything for the flower, but she believed the principles were the same. She liked to believe her blood was good for that much.

“So you DO like flowers,” 6O’s voice came over her comms channel, it was the rare few hours of the day where she could actually get reception down on the city streets then.

“What happened to permission?” 2B asked, putting a hand over her visor to shield herself from her operator’s curiousity as she put her glove back on.

“Oops! Sorry,” 6O replied in a way that made it seem like she wasn’t very sorry at all. “Actually, I called with a report.”

“What is it?”

“It’s probably nothing but…”

“Operator, please deliver your report.”

6O made some kind of noise on the other end, hesitating before she admitted. “We’ve lost track of 9S.”

2B stopped all movement, her body going as rigid as a statue as she processed this. Were they so far along already? 9S had been quieter around her, it was true, but there was no indication that he was questioning YoRHa orders more than usual. They had still barely made any progress on working their way towards the hidden machine production facility. It was too early, she was sure.

She’d barely had any time to spend with him yet.

“There’s more,” 6O continued when 2B didn’t respond. “A routine log check revealed that he recently accessed personnel files he didn’t have access to. We don’t know what exactly he was looking for, but… 2B, I’m so sorry, the files he accessed were yours.”

2B was silent, the flower forgotten at her feet.

“2B, I—”

“Where is he?” 2B asked.

“We lost his position about an hour ago and he hasn’t resurfaced since. Sending last known coordinates to you now.”

Map data proliferated on her visor display, tracing his expected route and showing the deviation. Based on Bunker reception deadzones near there, she narrowed his possible location down to three alleys. All were incredibly tight, the perfect ambush location. All an android would have to do to take her out there would be hack her once and disable her vision, she’d either bury herself in rubble swinging blindly or be forced back by relentless pod fire until she collapsed. Worse still, she didn’t have any reason to believe she’d be able to backup her data from that location, and she didn’t have any reason to believe she’d be restored from anything other than her default backup. Death was a thing she was prepared for, but life without her memories of 9S was not a prospect she faced lightly.

In short, she would need to kill him before he could kill her. From experience, one quick thrust through the chest should do it. It wasn’t fair of her, she knew, to be content with this, but 9S did not need to remember 2B to be who he was. She was selfish enough to be content with this.

The first alley was a machine graveyard, one of those locations throughout the city where they piled their dead into a mountain of bodies. She did not understand the reasoning for it and she did not need to. Glowing eyes poked out of the mess of metal corpses, the smallest ones who hid in their fallen brethren for protection. They were beneath her right now, and the eradication of these specific machines could wait.

The second alley was empty, a curious effect of the wind left this and many other alleys throughout the city looking as though someone had recently swept them. Her footfalls disturbed no dust and there was nowhere to hide.

She readied her sword before stepping into the third alley, the tightest of the three, and with holes in the wall on either side where 9S could be hiding. Her olfactory senses registered something down there, unfamiliar yet strangely pleasant, or pleasant at least to the humans that had designed her. Her first cautious steps brought her to the answer, as she passed the first of the openings in the walls and found the floor of the building next door had been ripped up to plant a garden in the packed dirt beneath it. Artificial lights hung overhead, bathing the chaotically organised bed of flowers in an almost angelic glow. She did not know who would have set something like this up. A different Resistance cell? Lone, wandering androids trying to emulate the passions of humans before them? She could not say. The flowers smelled sweet.

The second break in the alley’s walls revealed another garden, similarly chaotic with flowers of all kinds and still no clue as to who would have set it up or why. Why of all places would they choose this grey, dead city to try to grow life? Life did not grow here. Life ended here.

The third break in the alley’s wall contained another garden, the same again, and for just a moment 2B dropped her guard. There was something painful about this that she could not speak to. Emotions were prohibited and she was an android of YoRHa, she followed orders without question for the glory of mankind. Why then did these flowers make her sad? Why did they make her hesitate in a way that nothing else could?

“2B,” said 9S, behind her.

2B pivoted, wrenching her sword around without brushing the concrete to either side of her, and charged, ending her run only when her blade was buried to the hilt in her friend’s chest.

Pinned between them was an arrangement of flowers he’d wrapped in paper, he’d been holding them in front of him when she charged.

“I guess you don’t like flowers then, huh?” 9S said, circulatory fluid beginning to drip out of the corner of his mouth. “Your file said— your file said you liked them.”

The horror hit her immediately, cradling his body in her arms as she lowered them down to the ground, her blade still driven through his chest. “Nines,” she said, resting him in her lap with his head on her chest. Already tears were starting to track down her cheeks.

“Hey,” he said, already growing weak as his circulatory fluid took the last of his power reserves with it out and into the cracked concrete beneath him, “you finally used my nickname.”

She wanted to say something more, she wanted to give him a comfort she had never found. Her strike has cut his black box in two yet it felt like it was hers that was breaking apart. She bent her head down and pressed her lips to his. With the hand that was no supporting him, she slipped his visor off so that she could see his eyes looking up in search of hers. Even as he approached death, he still looked on at her in wonder. How many more times would he look at her like that, she wondered. How many more times would she have to hold him like this and watch those same eyes grow dim.

She did not know the answer, but she sat and thought on it for hours more, cradling the lifeless body of her friend against her and watching his blood drip down to water the flowers growing where flowers shouldn’t grow.

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry, I needed to angst for a bit.


End file.
